Hiccup's POV

Darkness.

Then suddenly, brightness.

Not just any brightness; it was colorful. Last time I saw something this colorful was when I discovered the Hidden World with Astrid. The vibrant bioluminescence, the colorful dragons, radiant and could actually hurt your eyes if you stare at them for too long. Somehow, this brightness was so much like the one I experienced back then in the Hidden World.

To really get to know of my whereabouts, I needed to open my eyes. But my muscles wouldn't let me move that easily. From the amount of stretching I had to do in order to wake them up, I concluded that I was out for at least several days. Not to mention my utter hunger and thirst. Finally, having stretched enough, I rubbed my eyes to gain clearer vision, and that's when I realized that the colors of the brightness were indeed that familiar to me.

I was covered in large leaves, possibly as blanket to cover me in warmth. Above me were… land corals? Vegetations that I didn't recognize what they were. I slowly stood up to emerge between them, and right away, a big creature flew past me.

"Whoa!"

I looked up, and there were dragons. Tons of them. This sight was too distinct to forget; The Hidden World!

"How the hell did I end up in here?" I asked myself, slightly hoping that someone would answer me. The answer soon came in the form of a Night Fury, who landed abruptly behind me several meter away.

"Toothless!"

I rushed to the dragon, who happened to have landed by a beach. With sands. Noticing my presence, the dragon responded with an excited roaring. He opened his arms and accepted mine that crashed into his.

"You silly dragon! Did you take me here?" I asked, pulling away from the dragon. He answered with a low grumble, a 'yes' in his dictionary.

"Oh wow… I can barely remember what even happened after…" I tried putting myself down the memory lane to recall every single event that led me to here, the Hidden World.

"You managed to ignite the Red Death's mouth on fire, did you not?" I asked my Night Fury. He bobbed once. "Okay… then we flew around… ah, I forgot to gain some altitude, resulting in us flying into the cliff of the island, haha."

My nonchalant laughter was too nonchalant for the dragon's taste; he grumbled and turned around in annoyance, swiping my feet in the process to cause me lose balance. Luckily, the sand was soft, and so was my bottom. Ignoring the dragon's naughty behavior, I grabbed my chin to recall of my memory again.

"And then… the Death rammed into us… how did we survive that?" I asked my dragon once again, to which I earned no reply. He simply walked away to a direction that I thought was random, but was not. The Light Fury came to join us, apparently.

"Oh hi there Lyrie!" I greeted. Not interacting with humans too much in her life, the Light Fury didn't bat an eye to me, the only human in the Hidden World. The female dragon simply greeted her Night Fury with lickings and head rubs. She proceeded to walk into the corals where I came from and lied down.

"And then… we broke into a large room… it was nothing but darkness. I do remember it being so hot. Then the Red Death came through, landed hard, and apparently it triggered the ground to shake violently… oh no," I cut myself with a gasp.

"Don't tell me that we activated the volcano?"

Toothless emerged from my right, and nodded his head.

I crossed my arms, not wanting to imagine of what followed, which was most likely utter destruction, New Berk's Ragnarok. But then I realized of the most crucial thing; I was out for a few days, in the Hidden World, perhaps the farthest place to spend the days being unconscious away from Arendelle.

"Toothless, we have to go!" I said out of the blue and climbed onto the dragon. He was taken by surprise, but he took his time to walk to the Light Fury through the corals. He grumbled several times to the Light Fury, most likely as a farewell. However, only after a closer look did I realize that he was bidding farewell not just to the Light Fury, but to his future offspring as well.

There, under the Light Fury lied three eggs. I gently hopped off the Night Fury and knelt down to have an even closer look. I was lucky that the mother of the eggs welcomed my presence.

"Hello there…"

I looked up to the proud father of the eggs, who really did look proud over his creation.

"Gotta hand it to you, bud. Congratulation," I clapped my hands. He grumbled lowly once in response.

"Well… Lyrie, can I borrow the father of these children away for a couple of days? A week, tops."


"You've been away in the Hidden World all this time?"

I bobbed my head once. "Yes. Now let's get you two out of here, shall we?"

"I can't think of a better offer," Cassandra replied as she scooched closer to the bars. "You're going to need to find the keys—"

I cut her off once hearing the word 'keys' as I pulled out one from the previous battle, the torcher. Quickly identifying the lock of the cage, I came up with a conclusion that I could either melt the two hinges of the door or the lock itself, but it looked like the thickest piece of metal in the world. So, either options would consume time. I went with the hinges.

I turned on the torcher and pointed the fire to the upper joint.

"Cassandra, tell me," I started while working, "What became of Berk?"

The Therondian initially gave a weirded look. "You didn't fly past it?"

"There were thick clouds on our way. I spent most of the time flying above the clouds. Are they…" I paused midway to allow her to continue.

"They are volcanic clouds. Berk has… well, your people said that there's a volcano underneath the island. It's been triggered, so there you have it," she explained. After completely melting the upper hinge, I let out one big sigh.

"Is there nothing left?" I asked hopelessly, beginning to work on the lower hinge.

Cassandra shook her head. "No, I'm afraid. I mean, the volcanic clouds eventually did reach here. It must've been one big volcano. Say, when did you arrive here, exactly?"

I chuckled. "Moments ago? When I saw the Therondian ships, I knew I had to postpone my landing. I actually watched everything from above; the Arendellian guards charging, Elsa being held as a hostage, you stepping up, and so on. Luckily, Night Furies are as black as the night itself."

"I see… where's your dragon?" She asked.

I pointed my index finger upwards. "Flying in circle, waiting for me to get you two out… Why are you imprisoned with Elsa, anyway?"

"My fault. I should've come up with better lies. Or attire, actually. King Adam suspected that I was with the Arendellians, judging from my sleeping gown," she shook her head in disbelief.

I looked at the sleeping ice queen. "And why is she so deep in her sleep?"

"Elsa had a date with King Adam. Drank a couple of bottles of wine, judging from the smell," she shrugged. "King Adam took her in to get to… Northuldra? Is that the correct name?"

My eyes widened. "How did he learn that name?"

"I don't know. What's in Northuldra?" She asked.

"Something that will most likely have a high monetary value," I shook my head. "Nokk, the water horse, is one of them. So, you know. The king has an eye for something out of this world, right?"

"Oh god…"

Suddenly, the fire on my torcher when out just when I was about to finish. There was only a small piece of metal left on the hinge itself, no bigger in size than my own thumb. "No! Dammit! It's out of fuel!"

"I'll just give it a push, move back," Cassandra commanded. With a powerful kick, she broke down the door with a loud clang. I could only hope that the sound of the rain was loud enough to cover that.

I walked into the cage after Cassandra got herself out of it. "All right… how do we get her out of this thing…" I asked myself and Cassandra. Elsa was handcuffed on both hands, and the cuffs were shaped in a heavy blocky piece of metal that covered her hands completely, as if they were designed to suppress her power specifically. They were connected to chains that acted as a bridge between a machinery powered by coal that transferred heat to the cuffs themselves. The seemingly weakest point seemed to be the chains, but only if I had the torcher.

"No other way, we must cut our way out of here," Cassandra pulled out one of my two hatchets from my belt and handed it to me. Although feeling unsure of the option, I myself saw no other way. I accepted the object and began hitting the chains. I could tell that this was going to consume some time, as the tight space was not helpful at all with this manual labor, nor the heat of the coal machine, nor the anxiety caused by the loud clanging I was making.

I continued my work. Out of the blue, Cassandra pulled my other hatchet off. I turned to her to see her throwing the weapon to a Therondian who just emerged from the lower deck. The blade was planted into his forehead after landing on it, killing the man instantly.

"Fuck me, you scared the shit out of me!" I complained, continuing my work.

"I'm just trying to be helpful around here!" She said, walking away to retrieve the hatchet back. While doing so, another crewmate emerged from the stairs, which Cassandra didn't notice.

"Cassandra, behind you!" I warned.

The Therondian turned around. Not giving her opponent time to reach, Cassandra gave him a nasty slash with the hatchet she just pulled with utter recklessness from her previous opponent's head.

Of course, this was going to attract more and more unwanted attention.

"Hurry up with the chain!" She exclaimed, pulling up her sleeves and readying her hatchet as more men sounded in panic from below.

"Doing my best here!" I swung my hatchet hard at the chain, and it finally snapped. One chain done!

"Huh… huh?"

I looked up to an Elsa who had just woken up from her sleep.

"Elsa! Thank God you're awake," I grabbed both of her cheeks and connected my eyes to hers. "Listen, I need you to function fully."

"Huh…" she moaned slightly, still sleepy. "Hiccup?"

"Yes! You're not dreaming! We're gonna get you out of here—"

"Ack!" She cut. "Why are my hands so hot?" She raised both of her hands and was taken by surprise to see them entrapped. Her senses were finally kicking in.

"Can you use your power?" I asked.

Hearing the question, Elsa gave it a try. "Hnghh… I can't. This thing… I can't fight the heat. The metal is thick, too. It will take time for me to break free."

"Well start from now. We're going to need all hands on deck," I recommended. I continued cutting the last chain with my hatchet as Elsa tried her best to freeze the cuff. In the process, Elsa noticed the sight of Cassandra and the bloodbath she was in.

"Why is Cassandra here? And why is she killing her own men?" Elsa asked.

"Let's say her cover was blown off by her sleeping dress," I asked, trying my best not to sound bitter and sarcastic.

"Sleeping dress?..." She asked.

I didn't answer her. Instead, I kept on with my work. Cassandra was fighting by herself, Elsa's power was suppressed by this thing, and I was having the hardest time with the chain. The only thing that I needed last was Cassandra being pinned down in her fight.

"Hiccup! Help!"

I turned around, and it was what I just had in mind. Cassandra was pinned down by a man, and more were emerging through the narrow space of the stairs. Abandoning the chain, I rushed to Cassandra and kicked the man off of Cassandra. This gave a window for her to plant her blade on the crook of the man's neck, and that's exactly what happened.

"I'll handle the guys, you go back to Elsa!" I told the lady. With a nod, she picked herself up and rushed over to Elsa.

As if it was on cue, more men emerged from below. With a kick, I picked up the sword of the man Cassandra just took down.

"Just what on earth do you think you're doing, ya scrawny Viking?" One man threatened, raising his shield. Two more men followed him from behind. One of them was about to go after Cassandra, but I prevented him from doing so by throwing my sword to the man, which impaled his heart.

As much as I was happy with my sharp aiming, the action only raised more fury of my opponents. The two charged at me in the same time. Only armed with a hatchet, I jumped away from their direction at the very last second. Instead of crashing into me, they crashed into a pack of barrels which were behind me. I took my opportunity to cause some harm to the one with the shield, but he parried my swing with his own. I nearly lost grip of my weapon due to the large momentum. I was defenseless for a second for not being in a ready stance, and it was enough for the man to ram me with his shield.

"Gah!"

Just when I thought he was done, the other man lunged to me with his sword. It was aimed at my chest, so I ducked to avoid it, again, on the very last second. His sword impaled the wooden wall instead of my heart, and it was stuck. I took my chance and planted my blade on his side. It didn't end him, but it was painful enough for him to collapse. Right when I was about to anticipate the other guy, he hit my chest with the edge of his shield. I swore a bone just cracked. I collapsed to the agony he just caused against the wall.

"Afft!"

Out of nowhere, my opponent collapsed before me with a wound on his head. When I looked up, that's when I noticed that Elsa was behind this as she had blood stain on her cuff.

"You're okay?" Elsa asked, as she and Cassandra lent their hands to help me get up. I accepted them, patting my chest afterwards.

"Might need to protect my chest more…" I replied when a stinging sensation appeared in my chest. "Aghhh!"

I was about to collapse on my knees, but the ladies caught me.

"We can't stay here," Cassandra replied. To prevent more men from coming, she shut the hatch of the lower deck and placed a barrel on top. Just after she did so, loud banging sounded from the other side of the wooden hatch.

"Open it! You BITCH!"

"Come!" Elsa took me by the arm and led me and Cassandra out to the main deck. Right away, the heavy rain welcomed us. It only made it harder, if not, impossible, for me to spot my Night Fury on the sky. There really was no hope in spotting him visually, so I decided to simply call for his name to summon him.

"TOOTHLESS!" I yelled.

For a couple of moments, there was no sign of the dragon. So, I continued yelling his name until the deck just wobbled. When we turned around, we spotted the Night Fury.

I sighed in relief. "Finally! Let's go—"

A figure jumped from behind of the dragon, wielding a spear that he pierced through the dragon's right wing. The tip of the spear was planted on the wooden floor, disabling the dragon's mobility. Toothless growled in agony to the action, as he tried to break free but only ending up tearing a bit of his wing.

"Toothless, stop! You're only making it worse!" I warned the dragon. To worsen the state the Night Fury was in, the man hit the other end of the spear with his sword to plant the tip deeper into the floor. Having managed to disable the dragon, the man walked past him nonchalantly to face us with his sword.

"Adam, you're going to pay for this!" Cassandra threatened, raising her hatchet.

"So this is King Adam of Therondia?" I asked with a loud volume.

"Yes!" Elsa nodded.

"And who would you be?" King Adam asked. "The last Berkian there is? HA!"

"Chief of Berk," I bowed down slightly as a sarcastic manner. "Pleased to meet you."

I wasted no time and spun my body to build momentum quickly on my throw. At the end of the spin, I threw my hatchet to the king of Therondia.

CLANG!

Almost effortlessly, the king blocked the hatchet with his sword. It was sent flying.

"Oh you want to cut the formalities and jump straight in into your death?" He asked cockily.

"As if your men gave me any!" I barked back.

"Hiccup, you need to stop throwing your weapons away!" Cassandra complained. I was about to reply, but I noticed the sound of heavy footsteps from behind. That's when we learnt that the crewmates reached us. We were very much cornered here.

"Elsa, we can really use your power here…" I asked.

She clicked her tongue. "I'm trying!"

I glanced at her cuffs, which were actually covered in frosts. But it was a slow process, and we needed her powers now.

Wheeshhhh….

It was the distinct sound of a charging plasma blast. I looked up to Toothless, whose jaws were glowing brightly in purple. King Adam noticed this and bravely grabbed the beast by the jaw and aimed it upwards.

PHEW—BOOM!

Toothless spat the ball of plasma to the center mast of the ship. It instantly snapped into two pieces, the upper one collapsing. All of us avoided it by running away from the landing area. The towering mast landed, indirectly dividing the deck into two separate areas and separating us away from our foes, as it happened. This allowed me to pick up my hatchet.

"Free Toothless! We will buy you some time!" Elsa said, as she and Cassandra dashed off to face the crewmate. The sight of Elsa dashing off with her cuffs still made me briefly question how the hell she was going to buy me some time with the state she was in, but I brushed myself off from the question.

I was going to simply cut the spear in half to free Toothless, but seeing it was made out of metal, my rusty hatchet would not be up for the job. I tried pulling it out when King Adam jumped into me. I evaded him with a step backwards. Fortunately, my step was far enough to evade his sword as well, which he swung on his jump.

Seeing the failed attempt, the king lunged at me again. With a mere step to the right, I managed to avoid him and get myself a window to counter him with a sweep to his foot. The king lost his balance. Mid-fall, he used his sword to prevent himself from falling. I took my chance and landed a blow on his shoulder with my hatchet.

"AARGH!" The king whined in pain. Despite the pain, he still forced himself to counter me by pulling his sword into a swing right onto my chest. Being so close with the king, his blade hit my chest good, but didn't cut anything in the process due to my armor. However, its force still caused me pain due to the previous hit I had taken.

Slightly concussed by the counter attack, I opened my eyes to a lunging king of Therondia. To prevent my belly from getting impaled, I knocked the sword with a swing of my hatchet. It was enough to send it to the floor instead of my belly, but the body of the man himself still crashed into me. His entire weight soon collapsed on top of mine. Being on top and armed with nothing, his hands caught my neck and choked it. I tried reaching for his but his wiggling prevented me from doing so.

"Pass my hello to your people in hell…" He coldly spoke.

I was running out of breath when something knocked him away, sending him to the other side of the deck. When I looked up, that's when I realized it was Toothless' doing, who had probably done it with his tail. Just when I thought I could finally focus on freeing Toothless, three crewmates approached me to become my new opponents.

"Ah great, welcome," I taunted in sarcasm. I grabbed the sword that King Adam used previously and wielded it along with the hatchet. However, on the corner of my vision, I saw Cassandra being pinned down by a man on the other side of the deck. Her arm that possessed her hatchet was pinned down by the man's foot.

"CASSANDRA!" I yelled. Noticing my call, I aimed my hatchet and threw it to her.

Cassandra's POV

Reaching for the hatchet, I caught the object midair and immediately planted to the leg of the man to free my other arm. My foe whined in pain, and I shouted my battle cry as I kicked the man with both foot and regained my footing in the end. Because of the kick I had given, the man lost his balance and fell off the ship.

Just when I thought I'd gone rusty after not having a proper swordfight for years. And I was using a pair of axes!

I turned around to face whoever was next. The next opponent for me took me by surprise; King Adam of Therondia. He seemed to be regaining his composure after whatever had happened to him. While doing so, he picked up a lying sword and shield from the previous opponents I had defeated.

"Still standing for your treason, Cass?" He asked, banging his sword against his shield.

"Siding up with a kingdom of human-trafficking? Once is enough in my life," I put myself into a ready and welcoming stance. I waited for him to come, but growing impatient, I raised my hatchets and swung them to his shield. My plan was to take his shield off with reckless force, and it seemed to be working, as his body recoiled against my swinging. He was about to counter with a swing of his sword from below, but a simple kick to it was enough to cancel his counter attack. Giving the king no time to break, I swung both of my hatchets to his shield once again. On the corner of my vision, I spotted that his grip on his shield was right on the verge, so I used the crook of my blade to remove his shield entirely from him.

With his body completely exposed, I readied another blow, but someone rammed me from behind.

My body rolled on the deck. In the middle of the roll, I set my foot to stop me within an instant. Looking up ahead, I realized that there were four crewmates behind me previously. They helped their king stand up on his feet when they glared me in a threatening manner.

PHEW—BOOM!

Out of nowhere, Hiccup's dragon spat a bright fireball into the direction of the opponents before me from the other side of the deck. The four crewmates didn't stand a chance and were sent flying off the ship. Miraculously, the king didn't get hit by the fireball, though he was definitely stunned by the sudden explosion. Of course, I had to take the window.

I aimed my hatchet at the king. I spun my body to build a momentum and threw my weapon at the end.

CLANG!

I looked up to the King of Therondia who had blocked my throw with a shield he just picked up. The hatchet was sent flying away once again.

Elsa's POV

"HYAH!"

Using my cuff, I punched the man in the face, blood splattering all over me. Right away after the contact, the icy spikes I had created shattered into pieces. Due to the heavy mass of the cuff, each swing I swung wore me out instantly. To make things more tiring than it already was, I was also flowing my energy to the cuffs to freeze them so then I could break them while fighting these goons.

I looked over to my left to see my next opponent. Or opponents. Three of them, all wielding swords and shields.

I looked down to my heavy blocky cuffs. "Come on… Hnghh…"

More short icicles grew on the cuffs. To simply create this had already made me need to catch a breath, but my opponents would not allow that. One lunged at me, his sword pointing at my belly. To counter this, I simply hit back the sword with my cuff. Its heavy mass did come in handy after all, though its price could become overwhelming. To counter the attack, I jabbed the man in the face, planting the icicles on his skin in the process. The agony I had given immediately caused him to collapse. He was downed. A breathing room, finally, perhaps?

Nope.

Right away, his friend caught me from behind. He caught both of my arms and kept them behind my back. He made me face his friend, who was readying to end me with his sword.

"Let me… go!" I screamed. Afterwards, the man who had my arms screamed in pain, releasing them. I pulled my arms to see bloody icicles that had probably impaled him. The man in front of me was taken slightly aback after witnessing me and my dangerous magic. But he shook it off and charged at me with his shield.

To minimalize the impact he was going to give to me with his shield, I shielded myself with the cuffs. Once making contact with a loud clang, I sensed the icicles shattering into pieces. Once again, I lost my only weapon onboard. Noticing the sight, he used this opportunity to sweep my foot, causing me to lose balance and kiss the floor.

I taught myself after the amount of trainings and battles I'd done before this moment to always roll away to whichever direction whenever I was pinned down on the floor. So, I did, and it did me a favor as I managed to avoid the sword of my opponent which was going for my spine. Instead, it went straight into the floor, very much stuck. I took my chance to grow icicles on my left cuff to give the man a good hit by the foot. However, once ready with the icicles, the man pinned my wrist down, not allowing my hand to move, which gave him more time to pull out his sword.

I looked over to my remaining free cuffed hand. I was getting sick of my only weapon of choice, so instead, I focused my energy of my right hand to attempt to freeze the cuff and shatter it.

"Come onnn!" I whined in exhaustion. The cuff glowed bright blue and I smashed it against the floor, shattering it into pieces. My right hand was now free!

Smack!

Conveniently, a hatchet landed near it out of nowhere.

I grabbed the weapon, coated it with ice, and planted the blade right away to the man's leg. Of course, he stepped off my hand due to it. I was about to stand up to finish him, but a fireball hit the man, sending him off the ship. I turned to the source and saw Hiccup still struggling to pull out the spear that had trapped Toothless while multitasking with the fight he had to attend against the Therondian crewmates.

"Elsa, watch out! Behind you!"

It was Cassandra's voice. Without even turning around to see what the fuss was all about, I summoned a wall of ice with my free hand all around me.

CLANG!

Finally, I turned around. There he was, King Adam, about to land a blow with his sword but ended up only chipping a tiny piece of my wall. Irritated, the king pulled his sword out attempted to pierce through the wall with the tip. To prevent myself getting penetrated, I thickened my wall, and it did the job well.

"Men!" King Adam raised his sword, "Destroy this witchcraft!"

Initially, none of his men appeared to obey his command right away, as King Adam proceeded to continue breaking through my ice all by himself. Soon however, I sensed a wild vibration on the ice behind me. I turned around and saw a man twice my height, wielding a long battle axe. With his swinging, his battle axe was eating through my ice, and it was only a matter of time until my wall of ice reached its verge of shattering.

With a quick decision-making, I barrel-rolled away from my threat right on the second I unsummoned my wall of ice. I regained my composures to welcome King Adam who was rushing towards me with his sword about to be landed at me. As quickly as possible, I created an ice shield to protect myself. Once making contact, a crack immediately spread through my shield. I flowed more of my magic to it to strengthen its endurance, but it was useless against the amount of force King Adam was giving. His muscles had me pinned down against a mast. To worsen the already worst situation, I spotted the previous tall man walking towards me with his battle axe.

He pointed the hook of his axe right at me, and it didn't take an expert to determine whether or not it would penetrate my ice.

Phew—BOOM!

A fireball ignited on the man's back. The explosion brought him to his knees, and it didn't stop there. Toothless jumped onto the man's back and began to wrestle with him with all of his might. The scene distracted King Adam's attention, as he looked behind him to see what could have possibly happened, and in the process, loosened his force on my shield. I took the window and retaliated by pushing him away.

Being pushed a couple steps away, I used my cuffed hand to land a punch on his beautiful face after creating short icicles on it. Once again, he was sent spinning several steps backward, and conveniently, Cassandra was there to welcome him. The Therondian grabbed her king by the neck from behind and pushed his back with his already-ongoing momentum to slam him into the floor. It was safe to say that her move colored me shock.

Having been slammed into the floor, the king took his time to recover his composures. However, he was about to interrupted when Hiccup walked up to him and impaled his heart from behind with the spear that he used on Toothless previously.

That was the end of him.

And it was very much noticed by the remaining Therondian crewmates onboard. One that was most horrified was the wife of the fallen king herself, Queen Ida, who happened to have come out from wherever her hiding was.

"A-Adam!"

The battle onboard immediately ceased. Queen Ida rushed over to his husband's corpse and broke down in tears. Hiccup, Cassandra, and I moved closer to one another and we took steps backward.

"M-My love…" The Queen of Therondia looked up to us, looking miserable as ever with the tears and the soaked attire due to the harsh rain. "You MONSTERS! I declare WAR with Arendelle!"

"We've always been, right after the moment you kidnapped me. But I will be waiting," I calmly replied and turned to Hiccup. "Hiccup, let's go."

Right on cue, the Night Fury landed next to us after presumably hanging by the mast of the ship. We hopped on the dragon's back with me in the middle and with a single push, the dragon leaped upwards. However, the hole on the dragon's right wing was interfering with our stability.

"Will he be able to hold?" Cassandra asked, worry sounding in her tone.

"I don't know…"

Soon, we had our answer. Even after flapping his wings rapidly, the dragon was not able to keep afloat on the air with all of our weights on his back. The Therondians saw this as an opportunity for them to charge at us with their weapons drawn and battle cries shrieked.

"Hiccup!" I called.

The dragon turned around and sprinted to the bowsprit of the ship, where the distinct unicorn sculpture was planted. We held on to each other while keeping ourselves balanced as well. Once reaching the sculpture, the Night Fury leaped forward and expanded his wings. With the momentum built prejump, the Night Fury was able to glide away from the ship.

The breeze of the cold air indicated our long-waited freedom. Or at least, I thought it did. It didn't take long for me to realize that the ship was sailing right in the middle of the armada, and it didn't take long as well for the other Therondians in the armada to notice the sight of a flying dragon with three figures on the back. Sadly, in order to get to mainland, we had to fly through the armada to get there.

"Hiccup, be careful, they might shoot anything at us—whoa!" I warned, but had myself cut when a cannonball flew past us. Soon, more followed, but not just in the form of cannonballs; bullets, arrows, and bolas, anything reliable to take us down from the sky.

Taking radical evasive maneuver, Toothless zigzagged on the air, but it had a cost; altitude. As we dodged here and there, our altitude grew lower and lower, and even with the amount of flapping Toothless was doing, it was simply not enough for us to keep a safe altitude.

"WATCH OUT!" Cassandra yelled, pointing downward. I looked down and a net of bolas was heading towards us at high speed.

Unfortunately, the warning was too late.

The bolas entangled with Toothless' wings and ourselves. Right away, we lost altitude drastically and plummeted into the water.

"WHOAA—" all of us yelled in unison.

Due to being entangled, all of us had a hard time getting ourselves out of the bolas. Time was running short, as our weights brought ourselves deeper into the water. Hiccup began to cut the net with his hatchet, though his panicking dragon was not helping the process whatsoever. I tried doing the same by creating a dagger of ice and using it to cut free. However, the breath I took before splashing in was too little, I lost myself moments later.

My sense of visual was out, but my sense of touch was not, as I suddenly felt something pushing us from below. Whatever it was, it brought us to the surface seamlessly, allowing us to breathe in our dearly needed oxygen, though we were still under the net of the bolas.

"Bwoah! What was that?" Hiccup asked.

Then, a familiar pair of glowing blue eyes materialized underwater before us.

"Nokk!" I spoke. "You're here!"

The water beneath us was flowing upwards, allowing us to stay afloat. Hiccup immediately used the chance to fully free ourselves by cutting the net. Toothless unfolded his wings and dried them by flapping continuously.

"We can't stay here, we're sitting ducks—" Hiccup spoke.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

As if he jinxed it, cannons of the armadas around us were fired to our direction. We merely shielded ourselves with our arms, basically accepting the cannonballs… that actually never even arrived.

Out of nowhere, a distinct chirping sounded from afar. When I opened my eyes, I noticed autumn leaves blowing by. It could've only meant one thing.

"Gale is here, too!" I exclaimed. I looked around for the spirit of air and noticed not the spirit itself, but the previous cannonballs flowing about on the air in a manner that only wind could do. The windy spirit had caught them midair with gusts of wind!

"Gale, the wind spirit?" Hiccup asked.

"Who else?" I asked, smirking slightly.

"Goodness, that was close…" Cassandra sighed in relief.

The Viking patted his dragon. "Toothless, you up? We still need to get out of here!"

The dragon grumbled low, shaking his head as a 'no'. Toothless kept on flapping his wings desperately to gain the slightest altitude possible to flee from the scene. However, it was not looking good, the dragon still struggled. It's a good thing that Gale was present to protect us from the cannon fires.

"Elsa, care to make some ice for us to stand on?" Hiccup requested. It was an idea I should've come up with ages ago.

"Gladly," I replied. With a swing, I summoned a roughly made ice below our feet. We finally had a ground to stand on, though it was ice, and ice is slippery (for people with no ice powers, at least).

This allowed Toothless to get a good ground to grip on, though he was still struggling to get a good grip. During the process, more and more cannons were fired at our direction, and judging from the rapid movement of the air spirit, I could tell that Gale was getting overwhelmed in shielding us from the cannonballs.

"All right, Toothless, you ready?" Hiccup asked once his dragon finally got a fixed position on the ice. The dragon nodded once and expanded his wings. With a leap and a push, the dragon brought us onto the air once again, but not by much. It was a humble leap with a humble altitude.

"Gale! We can use some help over here!" I called. With that calling, Gale immediately picked us up with a breeze of wind torrential enough to allow the dragon to glide. However, with Gale busy carrying us on the air, I had a feeling that we were exposed to cannon shots.

I was right.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"Hiccup! Behind us!" I notified the Viking. Multiple cannons from our rear were shot towards our direction. Hiccup made Toothless dive slightly to avoid the incoming shots. We expected the cannonballs to fly past us from above, but none did. When we looked behind, we spotted two Earth Giants shielding us!

"The Earth Giants!" I spoke out of relief.

"The what now?" Cassandra asked.

"The Earth Giants! They're the Earth Spirits!" I answered, spectating the giants chasing after us and using their mere backs as a shield to fend with the cannonballs.

"So are they spirits or giants?" She asked again. I shook my head with a chuckle, waving a hand to wave it off.

"You have some weird friends, Elsa…" Hiccup commented, half turning to me while steering Toothless. To this, I raised a brow.

"Talking to dragons doesn't make you any weirder?" I shot back.

He turned to me, about to say something, but the view that he saw dropped his jaw. I turned around to see what he was spectating, and my jaw dropped as well. Some of the sails of the fleet of ships had caught on fire, purple fire. One by one, more ships caught on the same purple fire.

"Bruni?" I gasped in disbelief.

"What, the tiny lizard?" Hiccup asked.

"A what now?" Cassandra added.

Seeing no need in explaining, I made the Viking face forward. "Just focus on getting out of this, Hiccup!"

With that stern and clear command, he navigated Toothless through the tight spaces of the armada. With Gale's help, the spirit stopped every arrow, every bullet, anything that could cause harm to us. Thanks to every spirit present, we managed to reach a clearing, which happened to be the entrance of the fjord itself. After creating a safe distance between ourselves and the armada, I looked behind to see the fiery sight of it, which oddly and ironically resembled the sight of New Berk being consumed in blaze. I simply hoped that Hiccup didn't find it the same way I did.

"… Did Berk look like this when you left it?" Hiccup asked, who happened to be watching the same scenery I was watching. He signaled Toothless to hover on the air with the help from Gale to fully take in the view.

"Do you… really want me to answer?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yes."

Despite the response, I still didn't have the guts to answer it.

"Yes, it did," Cassandra responded. "In fact… Anna and I had the closest look of it. And Gideon, too."

The Viking turned to the Therondian, looking puzzled. "Huh?"

The Therondian waved it off. "Anna will explain."

We remained hovering, watching the view ahead of us in silence while being poured with rain. The two Earth Giants provided us shelter from the rain by simply covering us from it with their hands while spectating the same view.

Far ahead, Bruni's fire was nowhere near being prone to water, so the fire was still consuming everything in its path. It was a disturbing view, if I were so honest with myself, despite having been kidnapped and about to be sold to a human-trafficking market.

An idea popped inside my mind.

"Hiccup, could you let me land, please?" I requested.

"Oh, just a moment—"

"I mean, on the water," I cut. "I want to end this. Let's hope the Therondians can swim."

He looked at me with a suspicious look. However, he did as requested. He made his dragon lower our height, low enough for me to step onto the water. Mentally commanded, the water below me froze, giving me a solid ground to stand on.

I looked to my cuffed hand and grabbed it with my free hand. I flowed my energy into the cuff, both from inside and outside. Glowing brightly, the cuff soon broke into pieces after I smashed it with a punch. Finally, with both hands freed, I could unleash my truest power.

Flurry of ice began to form around my arms. I concentrated to the fleet of ships up ahead and gathered my power.

"Raghhh!" I raised both of my arms, and giant icicles shot up from the water, impaling every ship there was.

Feeling absolutely wasted, I was brought on my knees as the ice below me melted.

Anna's POV

Multitasking between steering Molly and keeping my torch alive, I dashed along the coastline of the fjord of Arendelle. In my group, there were General Mattias and his officers, and the Berkians. We were chasing after my sister and Cassandra, but the presence of the harsh wind of the storm meant that the armada was sailing faster than usual. It didn't take long for them to exit the fjord when we had merely done a quarter of the coastline.

The plan was to reach an old dock located by the entrance of the fjord. There were boats that we didn't know their condition, but it was a chance I was willing to take to save my sister. Even if it meant that I would have to swim my way to rescue her.

I watched along the fjord while riding Molly. Because of the torrential rain, I could not see the other end of the fjord. However, a bright blue speck of light emitted from the fjord.

"Stop!" I commanded, braking. With that command, everybody on their horses pulled their harnesses to stop.

"What is it, my queen?" General Mattias asked.

"Did you not see that light?" I asked.

"What light?" The general asked again.

"I saw it, too…" Astrid added. "What could it be?"

We watched blankly at the torrential water ahead. As we were doing so, I sensed the earth shake. As time passed, it grew larger, until everyone noticed it. Our horses started to panic due to the weird phenomenon. It all became clear when I looked up ahead once again; the Earth Giants. Two of them, along with the other spirits of Northuldra, including my sister, who seemed to be struggling to stay on Nokk's back. They were all approaching us.

"E-Elsa!" I called.

I hopped off Molly, about to welcome her. But then, a black figure landed right before us.

Toothless, with Hiccup and Cassandra on his back!

My eyes didn't instantly believe at the sight, so I had them rubbed before seeing the same sight once again.

"I-Is that really you, Hiccup?!" I asked, soon mixing my tears with the droplets of the rain.

He hopped off his dragon and opened his arms. "It's me, Anna."

Gasping deeply, I crashed myself into his arms.